AI KOWADA GALLERY is pleased to present works by Hiroshige Fukuhara in a show titled "Modulation."This is the fourth of Fukuhara's one man show at the gallery following "Binary" , "Recursion" and "Instantiation" held respectively in 2010, 2012and 2013.

Fukuhara had launched his successful career as an artist when still a student of art at a University by being selected as a finalist for Philip Morris Art Award and participating in a group show in the PS1 MOMA in New York .After graduation, he became a corporate designer for a renowned Japanese company but continued to create his art, by which he enjoyed success at overseas art fairs such as the Armory Show.

The major focus of this exhibition is a tableau of over two meters in width to be on the gallery’s central wall, which shows the image of horses amidst foliage and flowers drawn free hand with pencil over the dark background of black gesso color over the canvas. From distance, the work is but a field of color black. However, when you get close, the dynamic pencil drawings reveal themselves from darkness. The simple technique of drawing with pencil on dark foundation allows the painting to be observed differently depending on the environment and the circumstance. This type of flexibility was an important part of his art which enchanted the collectors,

Along with the painting, the exhibits also include his recent photographical works that show images of natural landscapes somewhat akin to those in the Romantic Art of the 18th Century.

Fukuhara fabricated these images by putting together with Adobe Photoshop software innumerable images of nature collected from abundant resources including the photographs that the artist has taken for himself. The artist says “Generally, in the orthodox method of collage technique, the artists create meaningful space by consciously making explicit the differences between its constituents. Conversely, I try to establish the image continuity by repeating collage and retouching innumerously.” Here, the collected images are appropriated to represent the new elements that has little to do with their original identities to develop a new eco-system in the fictional space of the artist’s creation where they start their new life.

However, because our eyes subconsciously detect the logical irrelevancies carefully concealed underneath the seemingly unified field of Fukuhara’s landscape, we are left with some uncomfortableness. In a way, the space in the series “Mythology” accentuates the difference between the collage elements even more than orthodox collage pieces for the action of hiding them.

Fukuhara’s works to create art that is always challenging to our eyes albeit in a subtle way and the dynamic world hidden beneath its quiet presence never ceases to attract our attention.

— Hiroshige FUKUHARA

Hiroshige Fukuhara received keen attention as an emerging artist, winning Philip Morris Art Award: final selection (Tokyo, 1997) and taking part in a group exhibition at PS1 MoMA Contemporary Art Center (NY, 2001). After years of absense, his new works were presented at the first time since 1997 at "The Armory Show" New York (NY, 2012) and all the pieces at his solo exhibition was sold out on the first day and his show were futured by The New York Times and more.